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Lead / Senior Level Designer

Iron Galaxy Studios, a well-established independent game studio, is looking for a passionate Lead / Senior Level Designer to be a champion for great level design and be responsible for designing, implementing, and managing level content for a variety of products. We’re known for our excellent work on Killer Instinct, as well as helping to bring Skyrim and Diablo III to the Nintendo Switch. We also pride ourselves on being a studio that does amazing work while maintaining a positive culture and supporting work-life balance for our employees.

Designers at Iron Galaxy work on a wide variety of projects, including creating new games from the ground up, co-developing games with partners, and porting existing games to new platforms. Our projects tend to have shorter development cycles, which keeps things fresh and provides new challenges.

As a Lead / Senior level designer, you should have a wide range of skills in world creation that is keyed into level flow and can make spaces that are truly fun and engaging. Candidates should be able to carry a level from inception to ship, including setup of content like AI pathing, combat encounters, quests, and navigation objects.

This position is available in both Orlando, FL and Chicago, IL.

Core Responsibilities

• Design, critique, implement and manage the development of game levels for a variety of genres across single and multi-player
• Be a champion of level flow for our games, mentoring this in other designers, and driving quality for our products
• Design level spaces from paper design, through greybox, iteration, polish and ship
• Collaborate with team members, take in critique and feedback from playtests and players, and make meaningful iterations to improve dev / player engagement
• Assist the Director in reviewing level content in projects and game builds, help drive playtests, and provide feedback and recommendations
• Work with clients and be able to follow their preferred process and creative vision, which will change project to project
• Hands-on implementation in the level game elements like collision, encounters, combat, quests, and more
• Collaborate with Design and Art teams including Narrative, Combat, Gameplay, and Environment to make sure our levels cohesively represent game content and tell a story, when applicable
• Assist and bring knowledge for making levels performant and shippable on a variety of platforms

What else are we looking for? Here’s our wishlist for the ideal candidate. If you possess most of these qualities, you may very well be the one we’re looking for:

• 5+ years of experience in a level design / world building role
• Experience with directly managing one, or more, other Level Designers and offering mentorship
• Capable of being self-sufficient, highly collaborative, and helping to manage planning and client expectations
• Shipped at least one AAA game in a Sr to Lead Level Designer role on PC or Console
• A thorough knowledge of level design and flow, and the ability to speak and teach
• Experience implementing level specific gameplay like AI pathing, encounters, or quests
• Able to document and communicate ideas and feedback concisely and constructively
• Passionate about gaming, a real love for level design, and the ability to work well with your teammates

Bonus Skills

• Experience building maps for competitive multiplayer environments
• Experience with level / world building in UE4
• Experience working in a 3D package like Maya / Max or equivalent
• Experience developing for Xbox One or PS4
• Scripting experience
  
  

Iron Galaxy Studios is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We believe that a diverse workforce and inclusive work environment are essential to making great games and being awesome in everything we do. Therefore, we actively support equal access to career opportunities for all people regardless of age, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, veteran status, national origin, and any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We prohibit retaliation against individuals who present discrimination complaints to Iron Galaxy management or relevant government agencies. We strongly encourage women, people of color, individuals with disabilities and veterans to apply to all of our job openings.